Selwyn is a leading Employment Silk. The directories refer to his “superb advocacy” and his ability to “make highly complex arguments sound like common sense“.
He is an acknowledged expert in disputes involving restraint of trade (especially in the employment or LLP/partnership context), confidential information, garden leave, springboard injunctions, bonuses, fiduciary duties, wrongful dismissal and team moves. He has appeared in many of the leading cases at the cutting edge of the development of modern restraint of trade principles. The legal directories note that Selwyn “wrote the leading textbook on restrictive covenants and unsurprisingly is many clients’ primary adviser on this and many other areas of law” and “Solicitors favour him as he is wonderful before clients – so positive, so supportive and very direct in his advice”. He is described as being “at the top of the tree for restrictive covenants”, “great at getting to the heart of a matter”, “accessible, practical and a persistent advocate”, “clear, client-friendly and appealing to judges”.
He has a particular interest in:
- Arbitration/mediation of restraint of trade disputes, Most recently (in 2019) he acted as sole arbitrator in an arbitration involving a restrictive covenant between a major accountancy firm and a departing LLP member
- International law (conflict of laws) and employment: he acted for the defendant in Petter v EMC in the Commercial Court and the Court of Appeal and in obtaining permission to appeal the Supreme Court. This involved challenging existing Court of Appeal authority granting anti-suit injunctive relief to prevent the continuation of restrictive covenant proceedings in the US;
- Urgent injunctions and speedy trials
His cases cover a wide range of industry sectors, including financial services, accountants, solicitors and recruitment agencies.
His cases often involve employment law (commercial and statutory), confidential information, contract law, fiduciary duties, partnership/LLP law and economic torts as well as company law and the interface between these different areas.
Chambers & Partners and Legal 500 say:
- “A walking encyclopedia on restrictive covenants.” (Legal 500 2024)
- “Very good to work with, very responsive and very inspirational.” (Chambers and Partners 2019)
- “He is incredibly user-friendly and seriously knowledgeable in the area of restrictive covenants .” (Chambers and Partners 2019)
- “He is at the top of the tree for restrictive covenants.” (Legal 500 2019)